The field of the present invention is shredder machinery and specifically improvements related to the ripper teeth for such machinery, the rotor and the mounting of the ripper teeth on the rotor.
While the present invention is most specifically related to shredding machinery for waste products such as waste paper the concept would equally well be used for shredding old or wrecked automobiles or other heavier waste materials with use of appropriate strength materials.
Previous shredding machinery involved the use of rotors, usually a plurality of them mounted on shafts and journaled in the shredding machine for rotational movement. The rotors which are typically cylindrical, were provided with knives, cutting disks or teeth welded or otherwise fixed on the exterior surface of the cylinder.
Second rotor cylinders were often required with combs to clean between the knives, teeth or cutting disks to dislodge temporarily trapped materials being shredded in the machine to prevent clogging and possible damage.
Another significant problem is that when the teeth, knives or cutting disks became worn badly or broken substantial machine down time was required to remove the rotor shaft and rotor and repair or replace the damaged cutting equipment.
In the past, it has been found advantageous to the performance of the machine to wind the knives or cutting disk in a helical fashion about the cylinder, however, this then required that the comb structure on the cooperating rotating cylinder be similarly helically disposed to keep from causing damage to the cutters, knives or teeth.
The present invention proposes to overcome by using axially spaced, helically spaced individually mounted cutting teeth removably mounted to the rotor cylinder surface for easy replacement.